Small Revisions to the CAC Constitution Are Proposed to Address Three Matters

10/12/2015

Small revisions to the CAC Constitution are proposed to address three matters:

1. The CAC Constitution requires appointment of a Recording Secretary and a Parliamentarian from among the CAC membership, and it is stipulated that both serve on the Steering Committee, whose other members are the Chair and the Chair-Elect. This construction has several disadvantages. It mixes the need for officers with secretarial and parliamentary expertise with the need for expert counsel in the Steering Committee. Furthermore, the Steering Committee would benefit from additional institutional memory.

2. It can be difficult to find a CAC member (generally a busy person) willing to take minutes. Furthermore, the skill set needed for taking minutes is possessed by staff who are not faculty.

3. The Constitution does not specify how the leadership will be replaced in the event of an unexpected vacancy.

The proposed revisions address these matters by:

1. Altering the make-up of the Steering Committee, so that it consists of the CAC Chair, Chair-Elect, Immediate Past Chair, and additionally any other CAC members the CAC Chair would like to appoint to ensure good counsel. The offices of Recording Secretary and Parliamentarian would be retained, but they would not be tied to Steering Committee membership.

2. Allowing the Recording Secretary to be appointed from outside the CAC membership, at the discretion of the Chair. This could, for example, be a member of the CAC Chair’s Departmental office staff. It is recommended that even for such a choice, the title of Recording Secretary still be applied. This will help ensure that the person appointed takes the job seriously, addresses all of the tasks pertaining to the appointment, which are listed in the CAC constitution, and is rewarded with the appropriate title for their job history (e.g. resume).

3. Stipulating that the Chair-elect will become Chair in the event of a vacancy in that office, and a new Chair-elect election will take place immediately.

The specific revisions are proposed in a red-lined version of the Constitution available at the CAC website.